Month: June 2020

covid 19

My Writer Life

carolyncordon

At the moment, in my lock down Covid-19 life, I’m performing a variety of roles, mostly from the comfort of my sofa, with laptop on my lap, or at the computer.

I am the Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle monthly newsletter, I’m the competition secretary for Adelaide Plains Poets national poetry competition (entries closed last Friday, I have to write up the most recent poems that have come in, and take photocopies of the entries accepted via email, because of possible postal delays. And I’m also collecting submissions for an anthology about this Covid-19, which is making life difficult for so many of us.

But today, I was able to send some of my books to a purchaser, who will pay for them, as soon as she can, and this woman is expecting to enjoy reading my words, once the books arrive, as I have enjoyed reading the words she has written in her entries to that poetry competition I’m organising. Making connections, whether in real life or online, the honesty is beautiful, and words will further connect us, for who knows how long.

Friendships maintained can keep us safe, from many things in life, let’s hope this friendship will keep going, and who knows when I finally get my passport organised, and travel to New Zealand, we are sure to meet up. She lives just up the street (30-40km?) from my brother, who I will be staying with if or when I get to NZ.

Life hey? I love the way connections like this happen. And one of the poems this person entered in the competition, refers to Covid-19, and I will be glad to have it in the anthology I’m working on. Swings and roundabouts, it’s awesome. Did anyone mention toilet paper? Oh yes, plenty of people did … I’m so looking forward to having this anthology finished and launched, so I can meet more of these wonderful writers who have shared their word with me.

And before that, we will be announcing the winners of the Poetry Competition, and I don’t know yet, if that can happen in real life, or if it will have to be an online thing. This is in a month’s time from now, or a bit earlier actually, and things are still a bit up in the air, on the question of what is safe … But at least I have enough toilet paper, for now, anyway.


inspiration, New Ideas, Writing, writing prompts

Thoughts? Or Writing Ideas?

carolyncordon

Promises are dreams whose time is yet to arrive.

If it is said, that doesn’t mean it can be done. Or does it?

Celebrations – a person is born, another person dies.

Cloudy skies may bring rain, rain brings life to plants, and death too, to some.

If all dreams came true, that would create a crazy mixed up life wound up with paradoxes.

One hair. It can mean and do so many things. How many can you think of?

Flowers, beautiful, yes? But in picking them, we hasten their death.

A hound running free is a beautiful sight. Unless it’s your dog, and it’s supposed to be inside.

So many great inventions can lead to death of the user. Why don’t we ban inventions?

Should dumb people be required to be treated with extra kindness, or laughed at?

If you found that previous one offensive, write about the reason/s why.

How many items in the image can you name?

If you can name them, what would you do with them, in a piece of writing?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I came up with this semi-random set of writing prompts today, and if I ever run out of things to write about, I know I can look at this list, and there will be something to write about. Surely if I can do this in about half an hour, which includes the time it took to prepare my lunch of bits and pieces that are in that bowl, then I can always finbd things to write about.

If I can do this, can you do it too? How do you find things to write about? Do you struggle with that idea, or is it easy? I’d love to know your answer to the question, please leave your answer in the comments!

inspiration, meaning in life, writing exercise

Things A Writer May Need

carolyncordon

A Writer needs many things, many of them things everyone needs, food, shelter. income, ability to communicate. But a writer also needs a particular ability to write, and also ideas to write about. They need a curiosity about things too, if they are going to remain committed to their life as a writer.

Writing can be a lonesome business, just you and the black page/screen. And a need to fill them with words. If you don’t actually write, can you call yourself a writer? Or are you a ‘gunna’ because one day, you’re gunna write this, or that, but not yet, because this and that reasons.

Once a previous gunna actually begins getting their words written, they often realise the beauty of actually writing, and they’ll wonder why it took them so long to start. But one of the reasons some of them quit is because they never feel the thrill of getting the best words written in the best possible way, and they feel like failures, and go somewhere else for their interests in life.

But if writing is the thing that wakes up your creativity and joy in life, go for it, be creative, explore what you like to write, and what you feel you’re best at writing. Put your thoughts to the test, and share your words with others to see if others agree.

Look for inspiration everywhere you go, take not of any interesting things you see, or hear, or learn, and think about how you could use those ‘found’ interesting things, to add even more interest to your writing. If other people are interested too, cherish those people, they are your potential readers of your words, buyers of your books, listeners to your talks, and followers of your blog!

But not everyone will like what you write, so as a writer, you need a thick skin, and the ability to step away from any hurt caused by negative words and responses to what you do with words. Not every book will be loved by every person, and that doesn’t matter. We are all different, in what we like, and do. That means there’s less of a crowd, which makes it easier for you to step up and shine!

So share your words, grow a hide, be curious, get on with living your life, and write your words!

covid 19, New Ideas

Scrabbling for Comments

carolyncordon

Hmm, I was expecting, or at least hoping, to have gained some kind of response from others, in relation to my previous blog post. I know, or at least thought, that Scrabble is a game much loved by wordsmiths … I certainly enjoy playing Scrabble, with its focus on words, placed strategically, surely those are skills of writers!

A large vocabulary is a benefit to both writers and Scrabble players. But knowing words, without having the strategic smarts to place them for maximum scoring options, or having the misfortune to just get useless letters, can lead to bad/losing scores in games, as I well know.

Anyway, even though I posted a poem, with zero responses to it, that won’t stop me writing poetry. I am my first reader of my won poetry, and I am the reader I must satisfy first, before my poems go any further.

And I enjoy writing blog posts too, and having one or two, or ten or twelve readers (or more) of my blog posts is a satisfying thing. I read of bloggers with thousands of readers, and followers, but if I am able to connect, fully connect with few others, I am happy those followers are people of quality, who are, or become my friends, whether or not we will ever actually connect in real life.

I have various fun ways to get my words ‘out there’ another favourite of mine is in being Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, the monthly newsletter I put together then have printed, and then pick up and distribute around Mallala and beyond. I also put it up online on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/40710

And of course, I’m still putting together the “Plague Invasion” anthology, and I’m thrilled with the quality of works I’ve received in response to my request for submissions. See more about that here: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/carolyncordonwriter.wordpress.com/2018

inspiration, New Ideas, writing exercise, writing prompts

Scrabble Inspiration

carolyncordon
Today’s Scrabble game 20 June 2020

My husband (Graham) and I have been playing Scrabble every day or so lately, and while we had almost finished the game in the photo, I had an idea. I often have ideas, some of them big ones, others not so big. Some fun things, some serious ones.

Anyway, I was looking at the various words on the Scrabble board, and thought about what an interesting mix of words we had there. That thought led to the almost inevitable idea of, why don’t I do something with that random mix of words, something fun, for me, and for my writing friends. My writing group and the radio station I’m involved with, have fun with five word challenges, to come up with a winning piece of writing, to win a bottle of wine (for the writing group) or to simply have your words read by someone involved with the PBA FM ‘Words Out Loud’ radio program.

Anyway, my idea is this –

Look at the Scrabble Board, and write something, using as many of these words as possible (perhaps aim at having at least twelve of the words in your piece of writing). Poetry or Prose, Sensible or Silly, Fact or Fiction, go for it! If you write something that leads to an award winning story, or film, please remember where the initial idea came from, and mention my name!

With the blank tiles, one of them is simple – it is a ‘u’ (aqua) and the other is not so simple, it is an ‘e’. You can use the words as they are on the board, or with ‘s’ or ‘ing’ added or removed if you wish , but perhaps no other changes that can’t have been actual words possibly scored for this game. There are a number of ways you may wish to go with this idea. Perhaps you might try writing a piece using only words that are on the board (a very, very short piece of flash fiction). Or you may wish to write something using words from the Scrabble board, but other words as needed, as well. Up to you, of course!

If you enjoy this little writing exercise, please let me know, and I may do it all again, after another game. Graham and I know lots of words, about many, many different things. Some of the words may have been new to one or other of us, and learning new words is always a good thing to come from a good and interesting game of Scrabble!

I’m not saying who won this game, but as far as I can see, on looking back at the scores we have, this game had the highest score for one of the two players, so far. Scrabble is a fun game, and really rewards players who are readers, and who have a wide range of subjects they read about.

I’m going to write a very short piece, using other words as well, and post it in the comments. You might wish to do the same, up to you.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I ended up with a poem, not a story, but it’s very much a story poem, a narrative poem, scaled right back … I’ve put the poem in the comments section.